Hawaii Fencers Club

As an HFC alum currently living on the mainland, I can only speak for the club several years ago when I lived in Hawaii. But when I was there HFC was very much a club that took its fencing seriously. This made the club an excellent place to develop as a fencer. While the fencers were quite friendly and sociable, it was clear that what principally attracted them to the club was the opportunity to improve their fencing.
I am frankly baffled by the negative review from March of 2012. I have never known Coach Nishimura to be anything other than courteous and very professional. I myself never had any trouble scheduling lessons over the many years I took them. I will say that Coach Nishimura is not especially enthusiastic about people whose primary motive for going to fencing clubs is something other than their fencing. Over the ten-​plus years I’ve fenced, I’ve seen many people go to fencing clubs who were really there to get a date, to shoot the breeze, or to find their child friends. Coach Nishimura cares very much that his club is a place for fencing first and everything else second, and he expects his fencers, young and old, to understand this. If you’re a fencer, go to HFC if your real reason for fencing is fencing. If you’re a parent, go to HFC if your real reason for giving your child fencing lessons is teaching your child to fence.
As for the instruction, it is serious, and can sometimes involve a fair amount of technical drilling. In retrospect I realize that it has something of a sabre flavor to it (sabre being one of the three fencing weapons), which is not surprising seeing that I seem to recall that Coach Nishimura was himself originally a sabre fencer, though he coaches all three weapons. This is not a bad thing if you fence one of the other two weapons. It means, for instance, that as a foil fencer you’ll learn to score touches on torso below the fencer’s hand (on the «flank») as well as above it (the chest). As a foil fencer (foil being the weapon most people start with, and which I’ve chosen to stick with) this has proved to be invaluable for me. I continue to be surprised at how surprising foil fencers find so-​called «low-​line» attacks. Coach Nishimura also clearly understands the importance of dynamic footwork (being able to accelerate and being able to quickly change direction, as opposed to shuffling slowly around, standing still, or lumbering quickly but without balance). The value of dynamic footwork is self-​evident on the mainland, but not at all in Hawaii, since the small size of the fencing community means that you can often get away with simply learning to exploit the other fencers’ idiosyncracies rather than developing the kind of fencing that works against everyone, including highly skilled fencers and people you’ve never fenced before.
One thing Coach Nishimura’s coaching is certainly not is old fashioned, contrary to the 2012 review. I say this as someone who has taken and observed lessons from several different coaches on the mainland. If anything, Coach Nishimura’s lessons are quite modern. In some respects, for foil fencing they’re even cutting edge (sorry – pun not intended), since foil fencing at higher levels looks in certain ways very much like sabre fencing. If Coach Nishimura’s lessons do not resemble the lessons given by other coaches in Hawaii it is not because they are old-​fashioned but because they are «mainlandish” – a good thing considering that the level of fencing on the mainland is orders of magnitude higher than the level of fencing in Hawaii on account of the far larger pool of competitors and coaches.
In sum, HFC is a good club. The environment is friendly and serious, and the coaching is informed, modern, and effective. It is, however, very much a club for fencing rather than a social club for fencers. It will be a fit for you if you know what you want, and what you want is to fence. If you want something else, you’d be better served elsewhere. If you’re not sure what you want, you should probably visit many clubs including HFC and go to the one that feels right – Coach Nishimura himself would say as much.

Our 16 year old son, who has several years of fencing experience, recently took six lessons from Coach Nishimura. While the instruction was adequate — definitely old school — we found the coach to be rude and unprofessional. Unforeseen conflicts required us to cancel a few lessons. We had prepaid for these and the contract specifies that reimbursements will not be made. This was fine. However, without warning the coach terminated the private lessons via e-​mail. Evidently he doesn’t understand conflicts. But he didn’t even bother to tell our son the reason for his decision.
To add insult to injury, the coach didn’t bother to notify us that one of our prepaid lessons was scheduled for a date that he was to be away on the mainland. We had given him the exact dates with the check and he didn’t even bother to let us know. So we ended up driving at rush hour to that lesson and the coach wasn’t there. (By the way, Nuuanu in the evening is a nightmare for driving — we also had problems parking sometimes.) After Mr. Nishimura let us know that he didn’t want to give private lessons to our son, we attempted to get a refund for the lesson that never occurred. Coach Nishimura wrote a series of nasty little e-​mails saying that we had signed the contract and that he thought he had mentioned his travel plans to my wife. He had not.
Unfortunately, there aren’t many fencing options in Honolulu. However, that does not excuse Coach Nishimura’s failure to communicate with his student. We had heard several negative second hand stories about this coach but we decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. Unless you are a glutton for punishment, don’t make our mistake. And if you have a child who wants to fence, there is nothing more discouraging than a coach who e-​mails your parents out of the blue with a message that says the coach won’t teach you because he «doesn’t seem able to click» with you. No words of encouragement, no explanation, just rejection — without even the courtesy of saying so face to face.
We have three teenagers who have participated from a very young age in fencing, water polo, basketball, soccer, track, cross country, martial arts, hula, volleyball, swimming, lacrosse, and a number other activities. Without a doubt, Coach Nishimura has been the worst coach/​instructor that we have ever encountered.